The state of the union

By Rex Thorpe
July 2 2002

The season is over, the silverware is won or lost and the England Summer Tour has been concluded. Time therefore to take a step back and review the state of Rugby Union in England.

As a supporter of Leicester Tigers and England, this review will concentrate on the professional ranks, something that will irritate some. I will try to say a little about the middle and bottom of the pyramid at the end. Best to start with what I know something about.

England failed to win the Six Nations Championship. That went to France. England were probably the better team but could not manage a victory in Paris. France are an inconsistent team (e.g. losing to Argentina recently) but can be very good when motivated. It can be argued that no other team in the northern hemisphere are quite as good as England which should upset those who support Ireland more than the others.

I also rate England as better than South Africa. New Zealand and Australia have the edge over England unless they are playing at Twickenham. The Australians will take some beating in the next World Cup. New Zealand will have plenty of motivation to try. Can England win? They have an outside chance and are improving relative to the others, slowly. It is good to see young players making a big impact with England (Kay, Moody, Wilkinson). However, the team lacks enough backs of real class and also a front row of solidity (e.g. the performance vs Argentina).

I rate only Robinson and Wilkinson as world class in the backs. Greenwood and perhaps Cohen are good enough to compete with the very best but the others are not. Austin Healey is a world class sub. Hooker is the weakest position in the front row. Steve Thompson is inconsistent and inexperienced and Dorian West, although good at the throw in, is certainly not a good scrummager.

Irish provinces had a good European Cup. Munster were close to winning, Leinster were no slouches and Ulster were competitive. Llanelli showed that there is plenty of life in rugby in Wales. Montferrand and Castres were the best of the competitive clubs from France. Bath rose above their domestic form, but the pick of the bunch, again, were Leicester Tigers; other English sides did not prosper. Tigers were impossible to beat at Welford Road, away ties in Wales are their nightmare having lost only at Llanelli and Pontypridd in the last two years of the competition. An honourable mention also to Pontypridd for their progress in the European Shield and winning of the Prinicipality Cup. There are problems in Wales but most of those problems lie with the WRFU and their chosen national coaches.

In English domestic competition, Leicester Tigers showed the same domination as in the HEC, winning the league easily. However, slight chinks are showing in their legendary status, losing again to Harlequins in the Cup and at home to Bristol in the Zurich playoffs. In my opinion the second best side in England are Gloucester. They came third in the league and beat Bristol to win the playoffs.

The scrap to avoid (not) being relegated made the end of the season interesting. The quality of the English Premiership is not quite as good as some like to think. The evidence is in the league table and the results in the European competitions. However, some exciting young players are emerging onto the playing fields of the Premiership and onto the fringes of the England team, which looks good for the immediate future of the game at this level.

The crowds watching domestic rugby showed a healthy increase (about 25%) over the previous year. Whether many will feel they were cheated when they were turning up in droves to see relegation battles that were post hoc declared meaningless remains to be seen.

On the positive side a year without strife with the RFU has benefited the clubs. The Premiership clubs seem to have stabilised, financially (i.e. they are no longer just about to go out of business). Leicester Tigers will make a profit and the other clubs will not have to ask their owners to dip too deep into their pockets. The uneasy truce between the clubs and the RFU seems likely to hold unless Clive Woodward gets too greedy with the time of the England players. It is a constant problem that the clubs receive no financial compensation for the release of players to England other than block support from Twickenham. No sport has this balance right. Cricket has come closest to finding a way.

What of the game below the Premiership. I have seen Launceston play a couple of times. They were easily too good for all the sides in Division 3 (South) except Penzance-Newlyn and both teams have been promoted to Division 2. Launceston are an example of how the league structure has allowed a junior but well organised club to develop. They are becoming more commercial in their outlook having built a new stand (capacity 150). Ground entrance is £5. A seat in the stand costs an extra £1.

I also saw Redruth lose at home to Penzance-Newlyn. The standard of rugby was good. Penzance-Newlyn are a club with money. They can afford to pay a couple of good overseas players and the fact that they are a club on the up has attracted some other local (i.e. Cornish) players to join them. Redruth is an all-Cornish team. They tried hard and will stay in the same division. Redruth is the club with the tradition of historic excellence having supplied a number of England players. Richard Sharpe is a famous example. They also claim Phil Vickery (via Glaws). Their struggle to come to terms with their demotion in the pecking order of Cornwall is nothing to that of Moseley who have been asked by the RFU for guarantees that they can fulfil their fixtures next year. In the 70s Moseley were of the same status as Leicester and Northampton. This is where the negative side of (semi-) prefessionalism in club rugby are most clearly seen.

I also saw a game on Victoria Park, Leicester, one day when I was waiting for a late Saturday KO at the Tigers. The teams were Belgrave and Aylestone-St James. I don’t think it was first team. One of the teams could have been a colts or U21 side. It was a well-fought game. Recognisably similar to the one I used to play. This was amateur rugby union. There’s no obvious effect of professionalism at this level.

However, sadly, playing numbers are falling in England. Wigston RFC is no more. Some schools are giving up the game. Things like A&L tag-rugby offer some redress by encouraging youngsters to try the sport. And with young men such as Oliver Smith being inspired to play by watching the Tigers, not all is gloom at the base of the pyramid.

Taking an overall view of the game, there are as many reasons to be cheerful as not.